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US 6,651,089 B1Granted
Surfing friendly multicasting arrangement
AssigneeAT&T Corp.
InventorLarry Stead
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An arrangement that is particularly suitable for Internet, where a user receives a number of channels concurrently. The channel that is of current interest to the user is sent with a given bandwidth, while other channels (surfing channels) are sent at reduced bandwidth. The user's receiver buffers all of the received channels, and plays the channel of current interest in full fidelity. When a user wishes to surf, the buffered surfing channels are made available and are played to the user in accordance with the user's requests. When the user selects another channel to be of current interest, the user's terminal sends out a request for the new channel to be sent to the user at the given bandwidth, and thence provides the user with the newly selected channel at full fidelity.
Claims37
A server comprising:
- a first module for receiving a request for a surfing-friendly signal, where said request received by said first module specifies contents of said surfing-friendly signal in that said first module specifies a set of channels to be included in said surfing-friendly signals, and also specifies a channel in said set as a current interest channel that is to be at full fidelity;
- a second module for requesting incoming packet streams, from sources;
- a third module, responsive to said request, that selects one packet stream from among said incoming packet streams as the channel of current interest, and selects a set of other packet streams from said incoming packet streams, to form said surfing-friendly signal, that includes said current interest channel, and a set of reduced fidelity packet streams forming surfing channels, where each of the surfing channels corresponds to a different one of said packet streams in said set of other packet streams.
A server comprising:
- a first module for receiving a request for a surfing-friendly signal, where said request received by said first module specifies contents of said surfing-friendly signal, wherein said request received by said first module specifies a set of surfing channels to be included in said surfing-friendly signals, and also specifies a channel in said set that is to be at full fidelity;
- a second module for processing said request to identify a) a channel of current interest specified in said request, b) a remote source that can supply a signal in full fidelity corresponding to said channel of current interest, c) surfing channels specified in said request, and d) remote sources that can supply reduced fidelity signals corresponding to said surfing channels,
- a third module for requesting said remote source and said remote sources to send signals, and
- a fourth module for forming said surfing-friendly signal from signals received from said remote source and from said remote sources.
1 more element
A method executed in a service-providing unit of sending a surfing-friendly signal to a terminal over a channel having a given bandwidth, comprising the steps of:
- receiving a specification of a) a channel of current interest that is to be presented in full fidelity and b) one or more surfing channels that are to be presented in reduced fidelity, wherein said specification identifies a remote source for said channel of current interest, and one or more remote sources for said one or more surfing channels, where said specification received specifies contents of said surfing-friendly signal,
- forming said surfing-friendly signal stream that comprises a full fidelity signal corresponding to said channel of current interest and reduced fidelity signals corresponding to said one or more surfing channels.
A software package comprising:
- a first module for displaying a plurality of channels to a user,
- a second module for specifying a source for each of said channels,
- a third module for enabling said user to specify a set of channels to be included in surfing-friendly signal, where said user specifies contents of said surfing-friendly signal, and to specify a channel in said set that to be at full fidelity, as a channel of current interest, and remaining ones of said channels as surfing channels, and
- a fourth module for enabling said user to select one of said channels, to cause a signal corresponding to a signal provided by a source assigned to said selected channel to be provided to said user.
1 more element
A server comprising:
- a first module for receiving a client request for a surfing-friendly signal;
- a second module for requesting, from one or more sources, packet streams that are to be received by said second module, which are needed to satisfy said client request and are not already being received by said second module;
- a third module that
- pursuant to a specification contained in said request, selects a plurality of packet streams from among said packet streams received by said second module, with one packet stream from among said plurality of packet streams being designated as a channel of current interest,
- forms said surfing-friendly signal characterized in that it contains said channel of current interest at full fidelity and remaining ones of said plurality of packet streams at reduced fidelity, said reduced fidelity packet streams being surfing channels, and
- transmits said surfing-friendly signal to said client;
- wherein said client request specifies contents of said surfing-friendly signal, and wherein said client request for a surfing-friendly signal specifies a set of channels to be included in said surfing-friendly signals, and also specifies a channel in said set that is to be at full fidelity.
4 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.